The Republican presidential candidate made the curious comparison
while campaigning in Alabama.

"We must balance safety against just being a humanitarian,"
Carson said. "For instance, if there's a rabid dog running around
in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume
something good about that dog. And you're probably going to put
your children out of the way."

Carson stressed that the this sort of approach "doesn't that mean you hate all dogs by any
stretch of the imagination."

"But you're putting your
intellect into motion," he added. "And you're thinking, 'How do I
protect my children? At the same time, I love dogs. And I'm going
to call the Humane Society and hopefully they can come take this
dog away and create a safe environment once again.'"

Republicans like Carson
staunchly oppose President Barack Obama's plan to accept 10,000
refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria over the next fiscal
year. The controversy became a flash point after last week's
terror attack in Paris. A Syrian refugee passport was reportedly
found on one of the attackers, though its authenticity has not
been confirmed.

Carson went on to compare the security screening process for
refugees to being able to identify the "mad dogs," or
terrorists.

"By the same token, we have to have in place screening mechanisms
that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are, quite frankly,"
he continued.

"Who are the people who want to come in here and hurt us and want
to destroy us?" Carson said. "Until we know how to do that — just
like it would be foolish to put your child out in the
neighborhood, knowing that that was going on — it's foolish for
us to accept people if we cannot have the appropriate type of
screening."